Saturday, January 7, 2012

Coach Harbaugh's Saturday Night Speech

Coach spoke to the team last Saturday night before the Bengal's game...


“Men, we’re loose, light-hearted, we’re joyous, and we’re excited because we are something special,” Harbs began. “There’s not an easy way. Anything worth achieving isn’t going to be easy. If it was easy, it wouldn’t be great.

“Is there a man in here who doesn’t want to be great? … I am talking about greatness. Be the best. The best team, the best player, the best coach,” the head coach continued and began pointing at men around the room: “You want to be the best coach, the best rush linebacker – or best defensive player in football? Or, the best quarterback, best fullback, safety – the best football team in the world?

“There is only one way to be great. You have to take it,” John paused and then exclaimed: “Everybody agree? You have to take it. If you decide you want to be great, you will be. And, you can talk about fortune and misfortune, luck and connections and all the other stuff people make up excuses about in their lives. The people who do great things, accomplish at the highest levels, they decide to be great. And nothing gets in the way of that: not an opponent, not fortune, not fate – nothing.

“We’ve done the hard things – the work – to be here. We’ve earned this opportunity,” Harbs said. “Can you say this to yourself: ‘There will be nothing that stands between me and greatness.’ We decide what will happen, not the team in the orange and black. You will not allow that to happen because you will play every single play like your [football] life is on the line.

“When you line up tomorrow, there is only one thing: you and this moment. If you’re a corner, it’s just you and your technique against the guy across from you. On the offensive line, you are in that phone booth, and it’s you and that man across from you. Inside linebackers: you and the triangle read – that’s all there is in the whole world. And everyone plays every play like it’s eternity, like everything is at stake in that moment, because that could be the one moment that wins it for us.

“We’re going to go out there tomorrow with joy. We’re going to have a bounce in our step, and we’re going to have a light heart,” John continued. “We’re going to be nasty, tough men. That’s who the Ravens are. They have not seen this Ravens team. They don’t know what’s coming. Make the most of it!”


Excuse me now, I have to go run through a wall...

Read the whole article here.

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